Flathead V8 Question.

I found out my flathead is a 50 model instead of a 53 like the guy told me. I have 2 questions though. It has been sleeved in time and the cylinder walls look real good. It is stock bore to. Is this bad that it has been sleeved. And I took the oil pan off of it today and the caps that hold the pistons on the crank say 8BA on all of them. Does that mean they are the original ford one's. And my Big question is the crank has a number on it and I want to know if someone can tell me what it means. The best I can tell is reads (M2802) or (M2002) I have seen a crank out of a flathead before and it had EAB on it I believe. But can anyone help me out on this. The motor looks good on the inside, real clean even though is has set for a year or 2. I'm thinking about just ringing it and putting a gasket set on it and trying to run it. What do you guys think. The truck is going to be a daily driver. Like to work some of the time and town and back. I'm going to make it 12 volt to. Do you think this would be enough to get the motor going since it looks as good as it does. The guy I got it off of said the motor ran good when he got it but he puleed it out of his old junk truck he drove around his junk yard for years. The truck just started to fall apart he said but the motor was to good to junk. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks Scott

Hi Scott, sounds like a good engine. Don't worry about the sleeves. If they were installed correctly, they're as good as a new block. Back in the early 40's some of the early 24 bolt flatheads came with sleeves from the factory.

Connecting rods are all the same. 8BA, 0BA, etc all measure the same. And they're all tough as nails. Henry got it right with his con rods.

Crank: I've never seen the number you found, but I haven't looked very close either. Same thing applies to cranks as con rods. They all measure out the same for the late series flathead. The EAB happens to have been cast for 52/53. I suspect some small variation was made - perhaps to the counterbalance weights or some such thing.

I'd do just what you were thinking about. Make sure it's clean, put in fresh rings and run it. It sounds like a keeper and should give you lots of trouble free miles - providing there's no hidden problems the previos owner forgot to mention

No cracks from valve seat to cylinder. I have looked it over and over. It ran about a year ago which I know that don't mean much b/c a flathead will run with a crack in it. But my motor looks good. I hope it is a good one, it looks like it is. Scott

This forum is owned and operated by Internet Brands, Inc., a Delaware corporation. It is not authorized or endorsed by the Ford Motor Company and is not affiliated with the Ford Motor Company or its related companies in any way. FordŽ is a registered trademark of the Ford Motor Company.